Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for executing a maintenance operation based on next-generation printer driver architecture.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-12037, a printer driver based on legacy architecture (hereinafter referred to as a legacy driver) has been able to transmit a maintenance command instructing execution of a maintenance operation, such as nozzle cleaning, to a printer as a print job.
For a legacy driver, a maintenance command transmission button is provided on a user interface (hereinafter referred to as a UI), and a maintenance command is transmitted as a print job when the user presses that button. Alternatively, when an external application is utilized, the user selects an arbitrary printer on an external graphical user interface (hereinafter referred to as a GUI), and then when the user presses a button that instructs the maintenance command to be transmitted, a maintenance command is transmitted as a print job.
Recently, new operating systems (hereinafter referred to as OSes) have been developed that also handle mobile personal computers (PCs) in addition to desktop PCs. Applications, printer drivers, and the like need to support the next-generation architecture that is contained in these new OSes. Naturally, such new OSes are likely to include several restrictions, which may prevent conventional maintenance methods from being properly executed with the applications and printer drivers that operate on these OSes.